This picture was the last frame on the roll and had been cropped by the lab (presumably where it had been clipped as part of the developing or drying process), which it is why it’s not the standard 35mm ratio. Despite the crop, it’s quite a satisfying photograph, I think.
I like the contrasting styles of architecture, whether it be moderm, more classical (any architects reading this, please excuse my ignorance of building styles), or the remnants of industrial walls in the centre of the frame.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This old iron bridge – I’m not actually sure if it’s officially named Iron Bridge as well – crosses the River Don at Nursery Street. It’s flanked on either side by modern concrete bridges carrying vehicular traffic across the river. From the viewpoint in both pictures you’re looking approximately southwest towards the city centre, which lies around half-a-mile distant.
The two new buildings under construction will be, most likely – although, again, I don’t know for sure – more apartment developments. I like how the one on the left currently looks like a very tall, thin castle.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
This memorial stands beside the River Don in Sheffield and remembers those who lost their lives in the 1864 flood which resulted from the collapse of the Dale Dyke dam up near the top of the Loxley valley which released 700 million gallons of water.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Depite many, many pub closures in recent years (well, recent decades actually) there are still some that have been around as long as I remember. This pub, The Big Gun, is situated on The Wicker just at the edge of Sheffield city centre.
It’s seems it’s always been there, but I’ve never been inside – I know it mainly by the fact that the bus I used to catch into town when I still lived with my parents (and the first home I lived in when I left) drove down The Wicker on the outbound and return journeys, so pubs, shops and other things (not just on this street, but along the whole route) became imprinted on my mind over the course of thousands of separate trips.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
The building to the left of the frame here is The Two Rivers restaurant and bar. It sits where Blonk Street and Castlegate meet and is unusual because the building sits atop the confluence of the rivers Don and Sheaf. It’s also slightly unusual in that it is a re-purposed building. I wonder how many of the people visiting know that it used to be a public convenience?
It’s not the only re-imagined public toilet in the city either. There is a former gent’s toilets on Surrey Street wgich is now a cocktail bar named Public (pun no doubt intended). A public toilets in Handsworth, one of Sheffield’s districts a few miles from the city centre has a former public toilets now housing a barbershop. And I expect that there will be more.
While it’s good to see these places put to new life, I do wish that there were more actual public toilets around. They serve a very useful purpose and stop people having to use the facilities in cafes and bars where they might also be expected to buy food or drinks for the privilege. As much as it seems a humorous topic – particularly here in the UK where toilet humour is pretty much a curriculum subject – well maintained public toilets are a mark of a civilised society, I think. We all need to spend a penny now and then.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
Often, especially later in the day, calm water becomes disturbed by ripples as a breeze rises, or people begin to make use of the facilities. Early in the morning, when the water is still, is when you get the nice reflections.
Canon Sure Shot Supreme & Fujifilm Superia X-tra 400. Lab Developed. Home scanned and converted with Negative Lab Pro.
One of the two photographs I took of the Botanical Gardens was a bit of a bust. The shot was alright but I got a big light leak on it. I suspect the leaks I sometimes get when shooting large format are caused by my taking insufficient care when removing the dark slide, perhaps pulling the film holder away from the camera slightly and letting light in.
Given the time and effort it takes to shoot large format (and the cost per sheet!) I decided to attempt to rescue the picture in Lightroom. I had to crop it by a not insignificant amount and then had to apply quite a lot of dehaze and spot editing to try and remove the worst effects of the light-leak. In the end though, I managed to salvage a reasonably useable image from the original. It’s not perfect – the contrast is a bit crunchy, resulting in some crushed blacks, and quite a lot of noise has been introduced, but better than no image at all.
It can’t be too bad – it managed to get into Flickr’s Explore pages somehow!
Continuing a theme from yesterday’s post, here’s another shot where my composition is out. In this shot I needed more of the foreground to avoid cropping the bench, and also more of the left hand side to avoid the edge of this part of the greenhouse being cropped. I should have moved further back, which would have solved both isssues.
Someone did point out that the loss of the left hand side of the frame could have been caused when inserting the film-holder, which could have accidentally caused the tripod head to rotate slightly if it wasn’t locked tight. It could easily have been my fault for not checking my edges carefully though.
Steel City Snapper photography 